Do Clothes Make the Man?
by Sealtiel
Summary: Merlin discovers a new reason to annoy Arthur.


"Merlin."

"Yes, sire?"

"Arthur", the young crown prince corrected his manservant just out of a habit. "One day he'll possibly remember that", he thought before continuing what he'd started.

"I was just wondering.." He seemed to trail off.

"Yes sir—Arthur?"

"... just what the hell is _this_!?"

In a perfect unison with Arthurs sentence something red – but for Merlin's luck soft – landed on his face.

After Merlin had recovered from his slight asthonisement made by fabric missile, he lifted something that was blocking his gaze. A sleeve.

So it was a shirt.

Arthur looked like was eager to hear an answer. He had folded his arms and had not-so-patient expression on his face. His eyes were gleaming dangerously but Merlin decided to be a smartass.

Again.

It's worth it anyway. It always was with Arhur.

"Well?" Arhur asked.

"Umm, well... Without giving it that much thought... I'd say it's a shirt."

Arthur just rolled his eyes. "Surprisingly, I was clever enough to figure that much out, thank you very much."

While talking he took few steps towards Merlin and tugged the shirt on top of Merlins head. He didn't bother to be gentle or graceful. Merlin was used to that anyway.

"And now", Arthur said with a questioning look, "what is this wonderful peace of..."

"Fashion", Merlin quickly added.

"Excuse me?"

Merlin grinned widely. "It's fashion. That shirt I mean. I thought you knew all about it."

"Well it clearly seems that there's something missing from this unbeatable knowledge of mine." Arthur started to look utterly annoyed. "What's it for?"

"The shirt?" Merlin asked, frowning like he was thinking." Just guessing, but usually to wear."

"You never fail to impress me, Merlin.", Arthur stated with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Care to tell me why that shirt, if you can call it that, is in here? In my chambers", he continued with a piercing glare and his eyebrows lifted.

Merlin aswered hastily, after deciding that being a smartass wasn't the best idea anymore.

"Umm, Gwen made it. For you. To wear.

"She what?!"

"Well, she's been practising how to make and repair clothes.. Mostly because she want's to help Morgana in any way she can—

"I see something there that you could learn from her" Arthur chuckled.

"Ha ha. _As I was saying_, she decided to make a shirt for you. As a gift."

Arthur still looked little confused but accepted the explanation. He spreaded the shirt on to a table next to him.

The shirt really was something. It was bright red, which wasn't so bad – red suited Arthur. It was full, really full of ruffle, fringe and laces. And there was really no sense in the compositon. All the ornaments looked like they were picked randomly from seven different dresses for a young duchess and put on a one shirt.

"I think you should wear it tonight" Arthur heard Merlin say. Even without seeing his face he knew just what kind of grin Merlin had on.

"Come again?"

"Well I would be extremely impolite not to wear it."

"Even _you _can't be so dumb that you think someone would wear that... Thing" , Arthur said with noticeable disbelief in his voice.

"I'm not saying it's stylish but Gwen worked really hard with it", said Merlin.

"I can see that. She must've travelled far to get all that stuff on it."

Merlin sighed. "She'll be vey disappointed if she never sees it on you."

"And?"

"... Try being considerate sometimes. Prat." With that Merlin turned and left the room with a smirk on his face.

* * *

Knighting seremony was on Arthurs schedule for this evening. It usually went same way every time; first his father would do the official blabbering and then was the real party. Those afterparties were the reason why the other knights of Camelot bothered to attend the knighting seremony. Many of the noble ladies came to the afterparties.

And the young knights don't often refuse when someone offers free drinks.

Merlin was also going to attend the seremony. This time he had actually a choice – Arthur said that there was enough servants for this evening so Merlin could skip it if he wanted. Gaius also said that he didn't need his help for anything so Merlin decided to go. Merlin walked in to the large hall after two knights who hurried to form a row with the rest of the knights who were already standing there. Merlin tried to find a place where he could see but still stay in the background.

As he usually did.

After finding a perfect spot he saw Morgana and Gwen enter the hall. They both greeted Merlin with a nod and a slight smile. Merlin smiled back and watched them walk little bit closer to the king Uther's chair.

It seemed that everybody who was supposed to be there, were there. Or if someone still wanted to attend the seremony, it was too late; King Uther and prince Arthur walked in and the doors were closed after them. The hall silenced as they walked by.

Although Merlin sure had trouble being quiet. Mostly because of the interesting sight that was walking in front of him.

Arthur was wearing _the_ shirt.

Of course he didn't look bad. Arthur was naturally handsome; strong features but playful eyes. And as a result of his long combat training he was really strongly built. So it was almost impossible to make the crown prince look bad.

Funny it was anyway.

The most disturbing thing in Arthurs appearance was the fact how uncomfortable he looked. Arthur looked normally so confident. Even at times when he'd argued with his father about some sensitive issue; he always stood there with a look on his face that made everyone think he was right. Another interesting thing to see was the scale of emotions on Arhurs face. First he tried to hide, which was useless because everyone was watching the king and crown prince anyway. Arthurs wasn't able to settle his gaze to anything or anyone, and his expression clearly told that he wanted to leave the hall and hide to the nearest forest. It wasn't the worst idea. The shirt really was horrible.

Then his eyes met Gwen's. She had a wide smile on her face and Merlin could swear that he saw her mouth the words "Thank you". Gwen's reassuring smile seemed to relax the youung prince. For while at least.

Just until he saw Merlin.

Merlin was grinnning annoyingly and---

"Oh dear lord", thought Arthur and lowered his gaze. Floor under him seemed very interesting just there and then.

Merlin had winked at him.

Some of the knights looked slightly amused but they concentrated (or tried to concentrate) on Uther's speech in which he told how well the this man – Arthur could not even recall at that moment – had served Camelot. None of them dared even chuckle. Although it wouldn't have been totally unacceptable. Arthur looked more like a jester than a prince.

"Now rise Sir Agravaine." Arthur heard his father say.

Finally, the formalities were over. The afterparty was supposed to start in an hour.

So there was plenty of time to change clothes – and plenty of time to exchange few words with smug manservant.

* * *

**Reviews are love. Feel free to correct any grammar mistakes or mispellings - English is not my native language. But I wanna get better :D**


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